Lidar Production Manager

ABOUT US

Founded in 1866, The Sanborn Map Company (Sanborn) is one of the oldest continuously operating mapping and geospatial information technology companies in the US. Our work is highly visual, and our mapped data and applications are an essential part of today’s information economy. We serve many industries and government departments and need to communicate effectively with them about our wide range of products and services. We remain at the forefront of the GIS and photogrammetry industry by offering high quality, technologically superior products and services backed by the industry’s most experienced staff. We are looking for a talented individual to fill this role working in a collaborative environment ready to innovate workflow.

SUMMARY

The Manager of LiDAR Production is responsible for overseeing the production processes of LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) systems and reports to the Director of Lidar in the Mapping Division of Sanborn. This role ensures that all production activities are carried out efficiently, safely, and within budget, while meeting the quality standards set by the company. The Manager will lead a team of production staff supervising, scheduling and performing activities required in producing Lidar data products. This position is also responsible for working with sales, flight operations, pricing and finance when required to support proposals, and reporting in addition to the planning and execution of data production for multiple projects across the country. This includes managing assigned staff and resources while maintaining procedures and workflows to meet and/or exceed company-wide standards for quality control and production timelines. The Manager of Lidar is responsible for troubleshooting data and workflow problems, managing software processes and working with quality control in coordination with other groups such as information technology, and program management. This position is also responsible for new developments in workflows, software, manuals, and training. The Manager also performs production work in these areas as required.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITES

• Oversee daily LiDAR production activities to ensure timely delivery of high-quality products.
  • Noise Removal: Filtering and editing: Apply noise removal algorithms to eliminate erroneous points and manual editing to ensure the data is free from non-ground artifacts. Identify and remove outliers using USGS-specified methodologies.
  • Point Classification: Classify points into categories such as ground, vegetation, buildings, and water bodies using automated algorithms that meet USGS classification standards. Perform manual editing to refine classifications where automated methods fall short, ensuring high classification accuracy.
  • Ground Extraction: Extract ground points accurately to create a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) that meets USGS specifications. Use non-ground points to create a Digital Surface Model (DSM) and 3D models of structures and vegetation when required.
  • Feature Extraction: Identify and extract features like buildings, roads, and water bodies according to USGS extraction guidelines.
  • Derivative Product Creation: Create lidar derived products such as: Hydroflattened DEMs, Intensity Images, Maximum Surface Height Rasters, Swath Separation Images, DSMs, nDSMs, Contours, 2D and 3D buildings.
  • Reporting: Final lidar mapping report of processing steps including vertical accuracy, density, and statistics of the final point cloud.
• Develop and implement production schedules to meet customer demands and project timelines.

• Optimize production processes to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and lower costs.
• Develop, manage, and update project schedule and activity tracking including project timeline estimation and task assignments
• Troubleshoot and diagnose problems with datasets and workflows
• Lead, coach, and develop a team of production technicians and operators.
• Foster a positive and productive work environment that encourages teamwork and continuous improvement.
• Conduct performance reviews and provide feedback to team members.
• Work with flight planning to improve data acquisition
• Support field operations when required to assess or diagnose potential quality concerns
• Review and revise quality control processes to meet customer requirements
• Develop standard processes and documentation required by customers for project execution
• Maintain complete and accurate documentation of project tasks, progress, scope changes and communication internally and externally.
• Coordinate with division management and program management to support key company objectives
• Optimize and prioritize resources to exceed key KPI’s for project succes